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Pioneering Washington state press freedom bill dies in state Senate
Author vows to revisit issue next year with more support
April 18, 2007
HB 1307, introduced by Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-Des Moines),
was passed to the state Senate Rules Committee in late March where it was
assigned to the floor calendar. It is the committee's primary responsibility to
determine which bills will advance to the Senate floor. The bill, however, was
never brought up for a vote by the Senate. April 13 was the last day for the
Senate to consider bills passed by the House. The legislative session ends April
22.
The idea for the bill first came from Brian Schraum, a Washington
State University student. Schraum and Upthegrove drafted the bill to give full
authority to both public high school and college journalists under the same
statute.
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas and Massachusetts
have similar laws protecting public high school journalists. California also has
a law supporting the college press.
The bill was passed by the Senate
Judiciary Committee on March 30, but with an amendment that cut the portion of
the bill that would protect high school students.
Upthegrove said he is
unsure at this point why the bill was not brought up for a vote, particularly
because the controversial high school portion of the bill had been removed. Lack
of overall support, lack of support from the majority leader, lack of time and
legislative trade-off arrangements are all possible factors that could have
influenced the process, according to Upthegrove.
"It happens to most
pieces of legislation," Upthegrove said. "Most bills do not pass." As of April
17, only 321 of the 2,568 bills that were introduced in both houses of the
legislature were passed by the Senate.
Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle), chair
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that although he supported the bill, it
is common for both "good and bad bills" to die, considering the high number of
bills introduced.
"The decision to let it die was made by Senate
leadership, in response to the lack of strong [legislative] support for the
bill," Kline said. "As the deadline loomed, Senate leadership had to choose
which of many good bills would make it to the Senate floor for a vote. This bill
had to compete with bills that reform our healthcare funding systems, create
incentives for clean fuels, give teachers a raise, fix our employment security
departments, etc. It just didn't make it."
Schraum said he was surprised
at the sudden exit of the bill, especially with the "bumps" it overcame along
the way, but said he still feels that efforts were not wasted.
Other
bills in Oregon, Michigan and Illinois have been introduced since HB 1307 was
proposed, moves Schraum attributed to momentum from Washington.
"Looking
at the other states who are energized and looking at this legislation, I'm
calling this a success even though [the bill] didn't get passed," Schraum said.
"Other people are looking at this and, I think beforehand, there wasn't quite an
interest in it."
With the session nearing a close, Upthegrove is moving
past his "disappointment" and looking to the future: eight months down the road
to the next legislative session.
"I always try to look at the positive in
things," Upthegrove said. "One positive thing is we've started a movement in
Washington state that is going to continue after this year. Next year, we'll be
back. We've started a large coalition in this state against the abuse of school
administrators [on student publications]. This is just the
beginning."
By Erica Hudock, SPLC staff writer
© 2007 Student Press Law Center
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